Occupational Therapist and Pampers Institute Member, Kate Bailey fills us in in this Pampers YouTube video.

She says that if your baby is described as energetic, stubborn, impulsive or loud, then this is all normal.

Don’t overthink their busy behaviour and take comfort in the fact that your toddler’s brain is developing very quickly. The behaviour you might find worrisome today, will probably not be an issue in a couple of months.

Helpful advice and tips from the Pampers® Institute are available at www.Pampers.co.za and on www.youtube.com/PampersZA Receive emails with information tailored to your baby’s age by subscribing at www.Pampers.co.za/registration and connect with us at www.facebook.com/PampersSA

The post Video: What behaviour is normal for your toddler? appeared first on All4Baby.

1. When you return home with the new baby, present her with a gift from her new sibling. A doll and accessories is always a good idea.
2. Your toddler will play up and demand your attention just when you can’t give it, so expect her demands to intensify, especially if you have just sat down to feed the baby! To the best of your ability always attend to her needs first – this will make her feel secure.
3. Have a pile of storybooks handy and place one of her little chairs alongside your feeding chair, so that she can sit with you and read a story when you feed the baby. This is a good habit to start, and she will start to look forward to this special time.
4. When visitors arrive to see the new baby, let her show them to the nursery, and allow her to help open the baby’s gift, this way she will feel included.
5. Avoid saying “don’t touch the baby” too much. She will cotton on that touching the baby gets your attention and will continue to do it. If possible ignore (unless she is feeding the baby a niknak, or holding him upside down!) Never leave her alone with the new baby.
6. Use every bit of help offered.
7. Take the phone off the hook when you are resting, or at least invest in a portable phone to keep alongside you.
8. Limit visitors to a specific time of the day, so that you are not inundated all day. Visitors, while having your best interests at heart can kill you with kindness!
9. Stick to your toddlers routine scrupulously – it will make the whole family feel more secure.
10. Expect a regression in your toddler’s behaviour. She may demand a bottle or dummy again, or start wetting her bed.       Keep calm, give her what she asks for, and know that it will pass with time.
11. Try to spend some special time alone with your toddler every day, even if it means quiet time in the garden for twenty minutes.
12. Look after your relationship with your partner – remember that you are in this together.

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Faced with a nine-month old who makes faces at anything green, or a toddler who throws a tantrum at the sight of a carrot, many parents are tempted to give up on getting their kids to enjoy veggies.

But the findings of the HabEat project — a multidisciplinary Pan-European study of how food behaviors are formed in infants and children — give parents plenty of reasons to persevere. At the final symposium of the project, held in Dijon, France on March 31 and April 1, the research teams also presented practical recommendations for improving children’s intake of fruit and vegetables.

Understanding how eating habits are formed

Initiated in January 2010 by 11 partner organizations from five European countries, the HabEat project followed the eating habits of several cohorts of children (aged six months to six years) over a four-year period. The goal: to understand how eating habits are formed and sometimes broken during the first years of life. Using various psychological, epidemiological, behavioral and nutritional analyses, the project sought to identify the key mechanisms in the development of children’s taste or distaste for certain foods.

Taught to enjoy veggies and fruits

At the end of the project, researchers’ recommendations all center around one essential point: children must be taught to enjoy fruits and vegetables at the earliest age possible.

The importance of diversity

The project’s findings also emphasize the importance of diversity in the diet, suggesting that children should be introduced to a wide variety of fruits and vegetables early on. For better chances of success, researchers advise introducing only one new fruit or vegetable per meal, without combining them.

Parents should be role models

Parents should act as role models during the process, encouraging their child to appreciate fruits and vegetables without forcing them.

In fact, coercive techniques and reward-based motivations (“Eat your sprouts and you’ll get cake”) can be counterproductive, as they alter a child’s natural ability to gauge hunger and satiety, leading to a risk of compulsive eating and obesity later in life.

Trust your toddler’s appetite

It is better to trust the child’s appetite, however fickle it may be. Sometimes, the same vegetable may be offered and rejected 8 to 10 times over the course of a few weeks before a child finally takes a liking to it.

For older children, being involved in the cooking process can lead to more willingness to try new foods, especially if parents and caretakers bring them along to farmer’s markets to help pick out fruits and vegetables.

Breastfeeding plays a vital role

Finally, the HabEat project concludes that breastfeeding plays a vital role in the development of healthy eating habits. Researchers found a positive correlation between the number of months an infant was breastfed and the quantity of fruit and vegetables he or she consumed during later childhood.

(AFP Relaxnews)

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Tip One: Make sure it’s fun

Okay, this might seem obvious, but I’m going to make sure I say it loud and clear anyways…

Don’t make your child angry at bedtime!

Seems like common sense, but you’d be surprised how many clients I’ve worked with who insist on including baths in a bedtime routine — even though their child HATES taking a bath.

When I ask them why they’re forcing their child to do something that he or she hates right before bedtime, they usually say, “Because that’s what I was told to do.” Their mom or sister or friend told them that ALL children need a bath before bedtime, so they just started doing it. But trying to get your child to do something she hates right before bedtime is a flat-out bad idea.

Tempers flare, tears are shed and your child gets so emotionally wound up that it takes much longer for her to calm down and get back into her happy place.

So make sure your bedtime routine includes only activities that are enjoyable for your child.

Tip Two: Keep it short, but not too short

Specifically, somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes, from start to finish.

Why? Well, you want it to be long enough to get your child calmed down, relaxed, and ready for sleep.

Plus, bedtime is a wonderful way to spend time bonding with your child. For many parents, it’s the best “quality time” you’ll spend with your child all day.

However, if you let your bedtime routine drag on for too long, you risk letting your child get overtired, which makes falling asleep much more difficult!

Tip Three: No sugar or TV right before bed

Yes, I know this one sounds “preachy,” but if you’re giving your child sweets (or juice) right before bed, it’s going to be harder for him to fall asleep. Same thing goes for letting a child watch TV right before bed.

The juice or sweets will give him a “sugar rush” of jittery energy, which is the last thing we want before bedtime. And, watching TV or playing on the computer can (for lots of children) overstimulate them.

Tip Three: The biggest bedtime mistake

Is letting your child doze off BEFORE you put them into bed. Now, I know it’s tempting for many parents to let their child fall asleep while rocking, bouncing, or feeding. After all, for many toddlers, this is the way they’ve ALWAYS gotten to sleep. Unfortunately, it’s also the reason why they tend to wake frequently in the night.

About the Author: Good Night is a child and baby sleep consultancy that specialises in helping parents with children who struggle to sleep soundly. For more information, visit: www.goodnightbaby.co.za

The post Is your toddler not sleeping? Try these tips tonight! appeared first on All4Baby.

Official bedtime is 7pm. What follows is countless trips in and out of your toddlers bedroom, cajoling him or her to go to sleep.Sound familiar?

Many parents of young children face the same scenario. These two parents put together a funny (but very true) video of them trying to put their toddler to sleep. The video sees the two going through the various stages of sleep cajoling; proclamation, appeasement, getting tough, bargaining, staying strong, regrouping and begging.

The post Video: The stages of putting your toddler to sleep appeared first on All4Baby.